Van Halen Takes Roth to TV for First Time, Gets Him Injured

Van Halen membership is a dangerous thing. Eddie Van Halen has had his hip replaced, parts of his tongue cut out, and lost who knows how many brain cells. Alex Van Halen famously used to keep a garbage can beside him onstage for puking in due to his outrageous drinking habits.

Back when Sammy Hagar was with the band, the singer was one of the first rockers known for wearing a wireless headset microphone. With that mounted to his noggin, he was free to roam around the stage, even venturing into the rigging above the audience and onto catwalks. One night, Sammy was running along and smacked into a beam, knocking himself out cold. The band played on.

But original and current vocalist David Lee Roth has been karate kicking and might-as-well-jumping ever since the 70s, with no injuries to speak of. Until now.

Apparently Roth's microphone spinning technique ain't what it used to be. When viewers tuned in to see Van Halen play on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, they saw Roth with a bandage across his nose. The story goes that Roth and the Van Halen's -- Eddie, Alex, and Wolfgang -- were launching into Panama to open their set on Kimmel when Roth swung bad with a mic stand and whacked himself across the nose.

Roth ran offstage to get bandaged up while the band riffed on. When he returned, Van Halen restarted Panama for the cameras. The television audience was none the wiser. But the live audience got to see the whole glorious mess.

The Kimmel appearance was another first for Van Halen. While the band had appeared on television with Hagar in the past, this was their forst time on TV with David Lee Roth.